This is the story of a family thrown together at Christmas, each with their own problems worries and foibles. At the hub of the preparations is Mrs Marsh who is herself grieving for her husband John but she is of the old school, stiff upper lip and 'life must go on'. Her daughter Mary is grieving in a very different way for her only child and Mrs Marsh tries constantly to engage her with all the everyday events leading to the upcoming holiday. Mary wants to be left alone, she has had a complete physical and mental breakdown and is just not interested in the hustle and bustle of the house. Mrs Marsh is running round in circles trying to make sure that nothing is forgotten and that there is enough to feed all the family when they arrive.Her second daughter Barbara is coming with her family for the holiday, she is constantly struggling to be a 'good wife' to her university professor husband who is an obnoxious, cheating bore. Barbara has just found out that he is cheating with one of his colleagues and is trying, not very successfull,y to keep the 'stiff upper lip' like her mother. Barbara and her husband Seb have two children, the teenage Sam who is rebelling against everything his father is and behaving like an oaf just to annoy him, and the younger Kate who is a precocious little show off who I immediately wanted to slap! Throw into the mix Seb's publisher Hunter who becomes the target of Barbara's unrequited affection, his American colleague Max who is visiting, they become stranded at Mrs Marsh's house because of snow. Then the neighbours turn up and add to the mayhem. Barbara becomes tired and emotional, and the whole day turns into a sort of stage farce. I found it a little slow going and none of the characters were particularly likeable but it was funny to watch the gradual disintegration of polite façade as everyone shows their true feelings and Mrs Marsh continues to try and keep things normal.What I did find lovely was the descriptive writing about the surrounding countryside using such beautiful similes and especially the Wedding Lane which Mary remembers so vividly on the day that her son's funeral cortege drove down it in the spring.
Do You like book The Birds Of The Air (2002)?
What can you say about a book that uses "autochthonous" as an adjective? This is a book about grief over the loss of a child. Mary's inability to "get on with life" makes her the most understandable character, almost a tonic against her chattering mother, philandering brother-in-law, desperate sister, insolent nephew, precocious niece. Mix in a few neighbors and acquaintances in a too small house at Christmas and you could almost scream. Alice Thomas Ellis' acerbic wit saves this book. She says the things you think but don't say out loud, only better. I was happy that the publisher saved his commentary for an afterword. I hate introductions and always skip them until after I have read the text and drawn my own conclusions.
—Betty
